Appointment Booking Calendar

Description

Appointment Booking Calendar is an appointment calendar plugin for accepting online bookings from a set of available time-slots in a calendar. The booking form is linked to a PayPal payment process.

You can use it to accept bookings for medical consultation, classrooms, events, transportation and other activities where a specific time from a defined set must be selected, allowing you to define the maximum number of bookings that can be accepted for each time-slot.

Features:

The customer can book an available time slot from a defined set.

The booking form is connected to a PayPal payment page

You can define the appointment booking capacity for each time-slot.

A notification email is sent to the specified email addresses (one or more) after completed the booking payment.

A confirmation email with the appointment data is sent to the user after completing the booking payment.

You can assign a user to the appointment booking calendar. Users with “Editor Access Level” will get access to the appointment calendar only if it has been assigned previously.

Exports the appointments to iCal format (Google Calendar, Outlook).

Includes captcha validation for preventing spam from the appointment calendar form.

The appointment calendar has a printable list of bookings.

You can edit the text of the notification/confirmation emails.

Allows defining the product name at PayPal, the currency, the PayPal language and amount to pay for an appointment booking (you can set zero to let the user pay/donate the desired amount).

Allows defining the working days, the exact time slots available and the appointment capacity of each time slot.

Multi-page calendar: You can setup it to show many months at once.

Multiple time-slot selection: The custom can book many time-slots at once if allowed in the settings.

Configurable date format: mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy

Supports both am/pm and military time.

Export appointment data to CSV / Excel files.

You can define the start day of the week on the appointment calendar.

You can define the minimum available date and the maximum available date for the bookings.

You can block specific dates.

Pretty modern administration interface.

Please note that this is a plugin originally designed to accept appointment bookings linked to PayPal payments. The feature for accepting appointments without PayPal is implemented/available in the commercial versions: https://abc.dwbooster.com/download

Available Languages and Adding New Languages / Translations

The current translations are already available in the appointment calendar plugin:

Afrikaans (af)

Albanian (sq)

Arabic (ar)

Armenian (hy_AM)

Azerbaijani (az)

Basque (eu)

Belarusian (be_BY)

Bulgarian (bg_BG)

Catalan (ca)

Central Kurdish (ckb)

Chinese (China zh_CN)

Chinese (Taiwan zh_TW)

Croatian (hr)

Czech (cs_CZ)

Danish (da_DK)

Dutch (nl_NL)

Esperanto (eo_EO)

Estonian (et)

Finnish (fi)

French (fr_FR)

Galician (gl_ES)

Georgian (ka_GE)

German (de_DE)

Greek (el)

Gujarati (gu_IN)

Hebrew (he_IL)

Hindi (hi_IN)

Hungarian (hu_HU)

Indian Bengali (bn_IN)

Indonesian (id_ID)

Irish (ga_IE)

Italian (it_IT)

Japanese (ja)

Korean (ko_KR)

Latvian (lv)

Lithuanian (lt_LT)

Macedonian (mk_MK)

Malay (ms_MY)

Malayalam (ml_IN)

Maltese (mt_MT)

Norwegian (nb_NO)

Persian (fa_IR)

Polish (pl_PL)

Portuguese Brazil(pt_BR)

Portuguese (pt_PT)

Punjabi (pa_IN)

Russian (ru_RU)

Romanian (ro_RO)

Serbian (sr_RS)

Slovak (sk_SK)

Slovene (sl_SI)

Spanish (es_ES)

Swedish (sv_SE)

Tagalog (tl)

Tamil (ta)

Thai (th)

Turkish (tr_TR)

Ukrainian (uk)

Vietnamese (vi)

If you want to add a new translation you can add a new PO/MO file into the “languages” folder. If you want to provide the translation for a new language you can send us the texts and we will create the PO/MO files for you. We will appreciate if you allow sharing your translation with other WordPress users.

Updates

New features has been published in the current Appointment Booking Calendar version 1.1.8 based on the feedback received and we would like to thank you all the people that have supported the development, provided feedback and feature requests. The plugin is currently over 140,000 downloads/installations (6000+ active installs) and a new set of updates is already being prepared, any feature requests will be welcome. Thank you!

The Troubleshoot Area

Use the troubleshot if you are having problems with special or non-latin characters. In most cases changing the charset to UTF-8 through the option available for that in the troubleshot area will solve the problem.

You can also use this area to change the script load method if the booking calendar isn’t appearing in the public website.

There are also two fields related to the iCal settings: the “iCal time zone difference vs. server time” and the “iCal timeslot size in minutes”. The “iCal time zone difference vs. server time” can be updated to match the desired time zone. The difference is calculated referred to the server time, you may have to test some values until finding the one that matches the desired time-zone. The “iCal timeslot size in minutes” can be modified to have a specific slot time in the exported iCal file.

The Restricted Dates Tab

The “Restricted Dates” tab into the calendar settings lets you to completely disable selected dates from the appointment calendar. This is useful for excluding public holidays or other specific dates where no appointments will be offered.

To restrict a date just click it into the date picker calendar that appears in this tab. To remove an already restricted date, just click it again.

The Special Dates Tab

The “Restricted Dates” tab into the calendar settings lets you use a different time-slots schedule for specific dates. For example you can have the same time-slots available for all Tuesdays in the appointment booking calendar, but if you want to offer different time-slots on a specific Tuesday then you can use the “Special Dates” tab to overwrite the time-slots for that date.

To use this section click a date into the date picker that appears on the “Restricted Dates” tab and a floating panel will appear for editing the available time-slots for the selected date.

The Notification Emails

The notification emails with the appointment data entered in the booking form can sent in “Plain Text” format (default) or in “HTML” format. If you select “HTML” format, be sure to use the BR or P tags for the line breaks into the text and to use the proper formatting.

Displaying a List of Appointments

A list with the appointments set on the calendar can be displayed by using this shortcode in the page where you want to display the list:

… the “from” and “to” are used to display only the appointments / bookings on the specified period. That can be either indicated as relative days to “today” or as fixed dates.

There is also a “group” attribute to join the names of the appointments made on the same time-slot (for time-slots with multiple capacity):

[CPABC_APPOINTMENT_LIST group="yes"]

The “fields” can be used to modify the columns to display, that field accepts the following items (uppercase):

CALENDAR
DATE
TIME
NAME
PHONE
COMMENTS

… however, in most cases, probably you don’t want to display the phone or comments.

The styles for the list are located at the end of the file “all-css.css”:

.cpabc_field_0, .cpabc_field_1, .cpabc_field_2, ...

Clear the browser cache if the list isn’t displayed in a correct way (to be sure it loads the updated styles).

Opening the Calendar in a Different Month

There is a field in the settings area named “Open calendar in this initial month/year”. This can be used to display the calendar initially in a specified month. This is useful, for example, for bookings of an event that will happen in a future month, so you can display the calendar exactly on that month.

Allowing Booking Multiple Appointment Slots

These settings fields are available for each appointment calendar:

Minimum slots to be selected: This is the minimum number of slots that the customer must select in the booking form.

Maximum slots to be selected: This is the maximum number of slots that the customer can select in the booking form.

Close floating panel after selecting a time-slot?: Default: “Yes”. Set to “No” in the case the user has to select various slots in the same date. The price should be set for each total number of slots below (request cost setting).

Note that the request cost field will be automatically updated for allowing entering the price for each number of time-slots, giving total freedom at this price setting.

Exporting Appointments to CSV / Excel Files

The appointment data can be exported to a CSV file (Excel compatible) to manage the data from other applications. That option is available from the “bookings list”, the appointments can be filtered by date and by the text into them, so you can export just the needed appointments to the CSV file.

Appointment Calendar Theme Selection

The current Appointment Booking Calendar version has three pre-built CSS themes:

Default – Classic

Light

Blue

The theme can be selected into the administration area, below the calendar on the settings field labeled “Calendar visual theme”. Once selected a new theme, the CSS file “all-css.css” will be loaded from a different subfolder, be sure to edit the related CSS file if you need further modifications to the appointment booking calendar theme styles.

Other Versions and Features

The free version published in this WordPress directory is a fully-functional version for accepting appointments through PayPal as indicated in the plugin description. There is also a pro (commercial) version that includes the following additional features (not present in the free version):

Ability to process forms/appointments without PayPal

Coupons / discount codes

Form builder for a visual customization of the booking form

Email reminders for the appointments

Additional drop-down fields for multiple prices/services

Please note that the pro features aren’t advised as part of the free plugin in the description shown in this WordPress directory. If you are interested in more information about the pro features go to the plugin’s page: https://abc.dwbooster.com/download

The Appointment Booking Calendar plugin has recently reached 28,000 installations and we would like to thank you all the people that have supported the development of the plugin with feedback messages or by acquiring the pro / developer versions. We are working in a new set of features for all the distributions of the plugin that will be published soon.

Screenshots

Appointment booking form.

Inserting an appointment calendar into a page.

Managing the appointment calendar.

Defining time-slots on the appointment calendar

Appointment Booking Calendar settings.

Installation

To install Appointment Booking Calendar, follow these steps:

Download and unzip the Appointment Booking Calendar plugin

Upload the entire appointment-booking-calendar/ directory to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory

Activate the Appointment Booking Calendar plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress

After that be sure to refresh the page that contains the appointment scheduler form or clear your browser cache to be sure that the browser is loading the updated CCS styles file.

Q: How can I cancel/delete an appointment to make its time slot available again?

A: To delete an appointment locate it into the appointment calendar in the settings area, clear the title (there is a button for that) and save it. This action will delete the appointment (even if the content wasn’t cleared).

Q: How can I change the calendar’s width and height?

A: You can specify the size of the appointment calendar’s cells, that way the complete appointment calendar width and height can be controlled.

Open the file “appointment-booking-calendar\TDE_AppCalendar\all-css.css” and about line #139 modify the “padding” applied to the cells:

Q: Can I put an “acknowledgment / thank you message” after submitting an appointment and completing the PayPal payment?

A: The “acknowledgment / thank you message” shown to the user after submitting the appointment form should be placed at the page indicated in the field “URL to return after successful payment”. Note that after the submission the user is redirected first to PayPal and then to the “thank you” page once the payment for the booking has been completed.

Q: How do I change the background color of the selected date on the appointment calendar?

A: Open the file “wp-content/plugins/appointment-booking-calendar/TDE_AppCalendar/all-css.css” … find this CSS rule:

.yui-calendar td.calcell.reserveddate { background-color:#B6EA59; }

…and replace the background color that appears there.

Q: How can I export the calendar iCal link with Google Calendar on a regular basis?

A: Please read the instructions on this Google page:

https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100?hl=en

To get the iCal feed URL right click the “iCal” link on the calendar list and click “Copy Link Address” or “Copy Link Location” (depending of the browser you are using).

Note: This will automatically export the bookings stored in the calendar plugin to the Google Calendar. The inverse process (import the items on Google Calendar into the plugin) isn’t currently available.

Q: After booking appointment I’m not receiving the emails with the appointment data.

A: Please check if after the completing the payment at PayPal the appointment appears registered in the appointment calendar (some time slot unavailable):

If the appointment purchase is registered, then the problem is that you server has some additional configuration requirements to send emails from PHP. The Appointment Booking Calendar plugin uses the settings specified into the WordPress website to deliver the emails, if your hosting has some specific requirements like a fixed “from” address or a custom “SMTP” server those settings must be configured into the WordPress website.

If the appointment purchase isn’t registered, first check if you are testing the appointment booking form on a local website or in an online website. Note you should test this feature into an online website (local websites cannot receive PayPal IPN connections).

If the appointment purchase isn’t registered and you are testing it on an online website, then check if the payment appears as “completed” at the PayPal seller account (no red flags, no pending mark). Check also if your PayPal account is setup to automatically accept payments in the selected currency. The payment must be “accepted” and “completed” in the PayPal seller account.

Q: How to make the appointment calendar 100% width?

A: Add this CSS rule at the end of the file “wp-content/plugins/appointment-booking-calendar/css/stylepublic.css”:

.yui-calcontainer{width:98%}

Reviews

I’ve been using this plug-in for several years and decided it was the perfect time for an upgrade.

I purchased the Platinum version and was unpleasantly surprised to find they had removed some features that existed in the previous versions; particularly the ability to set the duration of each availability. Not everyone works on the 1-hour booking system and sometimes it’s necessary to create 45-minute, 90-minute, 120-minute durations for different hours throughout the day.

Needless to say; very disappointing.

Additionally, I see after all these years, the method for adding deleting available appointment times hasn’t changed at all and the available calendars to display aren’t mobile friendly or even displayed correctly on the screen with CSS.

My site users create availability times that range from early morning to late at night. Annoying to still have to check every box to delete previously created appointment times and actually have to click that very SMALL box to select it. Why not a ‘Select All’ button and the ability to select the checkbox or words next to it to make it easier? That’s been possible for some time now.

I don’t want to make it out as if the plugin is no good. It’s actually pretty amazing when you consider all the functionality these guys have developed into it. I’m just disappointed to see some key features still stuck in 2014 and no duration option for each appointment availability anymore. I can only imagine the duration was somehow a nightmare for the developers and they just decided to remove it, but it seems to me quintessential in an appointment booking program.

I’m hoping to see updates that address this, so I can edit my review and possibly rate it a higher.

I had been looking for a long time a plugin like this, and finally, I found it! There were many features I needed:
1. possibility to select a range of active dates that could then move automatically with the days scrolling
2. possibility of setting appointment times (IMPORTANT FOR ME)
3. possibility of using a form that also allows upload files option (IMPORTANT FOR ME)
4. filling in fields that are not mandatory for members already registered to my blog
5. booking appointments for a fee, as well as appointments NOT on payment (IMPORTANT FOR ME)

All of these features are supported by this plugin, so my purchase was definitely (and largely) repaid. THANK YOU!
Note: All the features I’ve been looking for are obviously included in the pay package.
For me: 6 stars!!

I have spent time tested all similar plugins and this is without doubt the best by far. It’s simple, practical and complete. The free version has limitations but the paid version is fully worthwhile, it’s a one-time payment and it’s perfectly complete. Congratulations to the developers.